Judge moves Pittsburgh teen’s homicide trial to juvenile court, angering victim’s family
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A boy who was 14 when police said he fatally shot a 17-year-old will have his criminal charges handled in juvenile court, a judge announced Monday.
As a result, if Nigel Thompson is found to have killed Damonte Hardrick, he could remain in custody only up to age 21.
Hardrick’s family stormed from the courtroom as Senior Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Kim Berkeley Clark delivered her ruling.
“He’s a menace to society,” one relative said, cursing the decision.
As a sheriff’s deputy stood up to quell the disturbance, Clark asked him not to.
“They’re well within their rights,” she said.
Nigel, now 15, is charged with the Feb. 13, 2023 homicide.
That night, police said, Nigel left his home in Carrick, where he was on electronic home monitoring and probation from earlier charges of theft and assault, and walked a short distance to Parkfield Street. There, they said, he fired a gun into a building.
Hardrick, who was there visiting his friend, was killed.
Nigel was charged as an adult with criminal homicide and gun crimes, but his defense attorney filed a motion to have the case moved to juvenile court, where the system would only have jurisdiction up to the age of 21.
To have the case moved, the defense was required to prove only by a preponderance of the evidence that doing so would serve the public interest.
The Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office objected, arguing that the time remaining before Nigel turns 21 is not adequate for him to be rehabilitated.
At the hearing earlier this year, Damonte’s mother testified that her three younger children remain fearful to leave their house. Her son’s death has been devastating to his family and their community.
She described her son, who wanted to be an engineer, as a great kid who told jokes.
He didn’t know Nigel, she said.
“Why did he have a gun?” she asked from the stand. “Why should he go to a juvenile system when he did an adult crime?”
But defense attorney John Shaffer Jr. argued that Nigel has done exceedingly well at the Allegheny County Jail since his arrest, including showing improvements in his behavior and participating in education and therapy.
Clark took the matter under advisement and reconvened the parties on Monday.
In announcing her decision, the judge said she wrestled with it for weeks and even had several sleepless nights.
“I struggled with it all the way up to last night,” she said from the bench. “He’s 14, but the circumstances are so awful. I went back and forth.”
In some states, the juvenile court system retains jurisdiction over offenders until age 25. But that’s not the case in Pennsylvania. If it were, Clark said her decision would have been easier.
Clark recounted the factors she considered in her decision. It seemed that the majority of them weighed against moving Nigel’s case to juvenile court.
They included the impact, nature and circumstances of the crime; Nigel’s history of being on probation; and the potential threat to public safety.
“The facts of this case are startling and chilling,” Clark said.
The factors, though, that weighed in Nigel’s favor, the judge continued, included the presence of adequate resources in the juvenile justice system to rehabilitate the teen and his ability to respond to treatment.
Clark noted that by 21, Nigel would have six years to receive mental health and trauma-based treatment.
“I can’t ignore the fact he was only 14 years old at the time of the crime,” Clark said. “I do believe that he can be rehabilitated, and I believe the juvenile justice system will give him the best chance.”
Clark said that adult prisons primarily provide punishment, not rehabilitation.
“The public interest would be served by transferring to juvenile court,” she said.
Nigel will remain in the Allegheny County Jail until a bed at a juvenile detention facility becomes available.
The case will now be adjudicated in juvenile court.